The present invention relates to a clipping machine for producing sausage-shaped products according to the preamble of independent claim 1 as well as a replacement assembly group comprising a displacer device for gathering a filled packaging casing for production of sausage-shaped products according to the preamble of independent claim 15.
In particular, the present invention relates to a clipping machine for producing sausage-shaped products, like sausages, by filling a flowable filling material into a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing and closing said packaging casing by at least one closure means, like a closure clip. The clipping machine comprises a filling tube, having a central axis and a filling outlet, for feeding said filling material in a feeding direction via said filling outlet into said packaging casing. The filling machine further comprises a displacement device for gathering the filled packaging casing and for forming a plait-like portion thereto, at least substantially free from filling material. Furthermore, the clipping machine comprises a clipping device for applying at least one closure means to the plait-like portion.
Moreover, the present invention relates to a replacement assembly group comprising a displacement device for gathering a filled packaging casing for production of sausage-shaped products and for forming a plait-like portion thereto and a coupling device.
In the practice, it is known that, e.g. in the production of sausage-shaped products like sausages, a filling material is fed by a filling machine through a filling tube of a clipping machine into a tubular casing material, which is stored on the filling tube and which is closed at its front end, referred to the feeding direction, by a closing clip. The tubular casing material is pulled off from the filling tube while being filled. After a predetermined volume of filling material is filled into said tubular casing material, a displacement device with at least a first and a second pair of displacement elements forms a plait-like portion of the tubular casing material, and the clipping machine places and closes at least one closing clip at the plait-like portion forming the back end of the sausage-shaped product just produced and the front end of the next sausage-shaped product to be produced by respective closing tools which are reversibly movable towards the plait-like portion. After that the sausage-shaped product just produced, is separated from the remaining casing material by a knife or the like of a cutting device of the clipping machine and is transferred to a storage device or another machine for the next producing step.
Moreover, it is known to produce sausage-shaped products, in particular sausages, having different kinds of cross-sections, e.g. circular or non-circular cross-section, like a rectangular cross-section or a cross-section with at least two flattened side surfaces. Beyond that the sausage-shaped products to be produced may also vary in the dimension of its cross-section, e.g. diameter, height or width.
For shifting production for sausage-shaped products to sausage-shaped products with different cross-section and/or dimension, the clipping machine has to be reconfigured by replacing at least the displacement elements of the displacement device. For this operation, the clipping machine has to be stopped, fixation means of each displacement element detached, the actual displacement elements removed, the replacement displacement elements installed and secured by the fixation means. Furthermore, in many cases the clipping device has to be adjusted or replaced as well.
Accordingly, the replacement procedure of the displacement elements bears two major problems. Firstly, the procedure requires the operator to use both hands, e.g. for simultaneously holding and securing the respective displacement element. Secondly, the accessibility of the displacement elements is often limited, due to the position of the displacement elements and/or other machine parts, e.g. protective sheets, hence, constraining and slowing down the replacement procedure. Beyond that, the amount of work steps of the replacement procedure makes the whole procedure extremely time-consuming. As a matter of fact, the clipping machine must remain shut down and cannot produce during the replacement procedure. However, idleness of production machines reduces the overall productivity and increases the production costs consequently.
Hence, it is an object of the present invention to provide a clipping machine and a replacement assembly group, with which the above mentioned drawbacks can be overcome, in particular with which at least the displacement elements can be replaced one-handed and with significantly reduced setup time.